November/December 2018

In the second installment of this series on continuing education and training (CET) and lifelong learning in NUS, we talk to Associate Professor Erle Lim, Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education). A/Prof Lim weighs in on these questions …

How do we inculcate a mindset for lifelong learning?

How does technology contribute to the lifelong learning initiative?

On Having a Mindset for Lifelong Learning

The right mindset, a sense of curiosity, and passion to learn new things – these are ingredients which motivate us to keep learning not just in our own fields but also in other subject areas. None of us, A/Prof Lim argues, is uni-dimensional.

“We would be boring people if we just learn our field and do nothing else. What makes a person educated is his/her curiosity, his/her desire to learn new things, an ability to meet people of different backgrounds and different fields, and still be able to talk to them and engage them.”

CET and PET learners can learn and interact in a common learning space

While these tools offer learners new experiences and the ability to learn and be engaged with their course content in different ways, A/Prof Lim also stresses that at the end of the day, even the most innovative technology-activated tools cannot replace good teaching. However, he adds that innovations such as MOOCs and augmented reality tools provide educators and learners different ways of teaching, learning, and digesting teaching materials and content. As he puts it,

“Different people learn in different ways, different people teach in different ways, and we see that these innovations are just part of the teaching tools that we all have at our disposal.”